The relevant background relates to IoT devices and to iBeacons.
The IoT is a network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to collect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. The IoT allows objects to be sensed or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit in addition to reduced human intervention. “Things”, in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, cameras streaming live feeds of wild animals in coastal waters, automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring, or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations. These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. The quick expansion of Internet-connected objects is expected to generate large amounts of data from diverse locations, with the consequent necessity for quick aggregation of the data, and an increase in the need to index, store, and process such data more effectively.
(Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things).
iBeacon is a protocol developed by Apple. Various vendors have made iBeacon-compatible hardware transmitters—typically called beacons—a class of Bluetooth low energy devices that broadcast their identifier to nearby portable electronic devices. The technology enables smartphones, tablets and other devices to perform actions when in close proximity to an iBeacon. iBeacon is based on Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing by transmitting a universally unique identifier picked up by a compatible application or operating system. The identifier and several bytes sent with it can be used to determine the device's physical location, track customers, or trigger a location-based action on the device such as a check-in on social media or a push notification. iBeacon can also be used with an application such as an indoor positioning system, which helps smartphones determine their approximate location or context. With the help of an iBeacon, a smartphone's software can approximately find its location relative to an iBeacon in a store. Brick and mortar retail stores use the beacons for mobile commerce, offering customers special deals through mobile marketing, and enable mobile payments through point of sale systems. Applications that can be deployed using beacons include distributing messages at a specific point of interest, for example a store, a bus stop, a room or a more specific location like a piece of furniture or a vending machine. iBeacon differs from other location-based technologies as the broadcasting device (beacon) is only a 1-way transmitter to the receiving smartphone or receiving device, and necessitates a specific application installed on the device to interact with the beacons. This ensures that only the installed application, not the iBeacon transmitter, can track users as they passively walk around the transmitters. iBeacon compatible transmitters come in a variety of form factors, including small coin cell devices, USB sticks, and generic Bluetooth 4.0 capable USB dongles.
(Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBeacon)
Conventional IoT requires devices to communicate via the Internet. IoT devices are relatively expensive because of their hardware and power. As such, mass production of disposable IoT devices is currently not economical, and certain IoT applications are currently impractical.